


secret santa

by zombiepops



Category: SHINee
Genre: Christmas Presents, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:15:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21608167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zombiepops/pseuds/zombiepops
Summary: Kibum crumples the piece of paper and tosses it towards the bin. He’s still focused on the dress and not the gift he has to buy for that guy he doesn’t really like. The universe had to have been testing him, right?Kibum doesn’t hate Christmas, he just doesn’t like the fact that out of everyone to get for the company's stupid Secret Santa thing he had to get Choi Minho—a person who he hates more than anything.
Relationships: Choi Minho/Kim Kibum | Key, minor Lee Jinki | Onew/Lee Taemin
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17
Collections: a very kpoppin christmas





	secret santa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [winkyjinki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/winkyjinki/gifts).



—— ❣❣❣——

Listen, Kibum doesn’t hate Christmas. The season lends itself to beautiful decorations all around town, everything in bright festive colors. He loves all the food and excuses to drink all because of a month that everybody loves. He loves the fact that he, Taemin and Jinki get to chill in Jinki’s small house, wrapped in blankets and warmed by the fireplace as they watch the Polar Express for the fifteenth time in a day.

The cons though, there are a lot of cons for the Christmas season.

For starters, he’s significantly more busy during the holiday season. He’s got a million more things to design now that the winter season is upon him: more winter comeback fashion for idols whose companies have personally sought him out with significantly more intricacies, more individualized pieces for a small winter collection he’d been just about to finish, and the most daunting of all—another large spring collection to start thinking about, even though spring won’t return for months.

Kibum’s way beyond stressed. He doesn’t know when the crocus petal fabric is getting to the studio, if he can have this dress done by the twenty-second, and if his commissioner would give him more time. He didn’t even know why the commissioner needed it on the twenty-second of December if it wasn’t being used until February, but he digresses.

All of that on top of the fact that it’s cold and Kibum doesn’t really like to be cold, he doesn’t like to scramble around for Christmas presents and get caught up in the holiday season and he most certainly does _not_ like that the Starbucks right around the corner from the studio is always full now.He has a hard time believing that all problems can be solved with a peppermint whatever-the-fuck that people like to order when he’s just trying to get a black coffee and leave. Honestly though, Kibum gave up on going to Starbucks on the fifth of December. He’s been buying instant coffee powder and, even though the stuff is weak as hell, been making it through the long days. He stays in the small sectioned off area of the studio, the room with the small coffee machine that Jinki got him last Christmas. He just had to deal with the instant stuff until spring comes around again.

Every hour feels like rush hour now, with the influx of people on the roads all at once.Kibum can’t stand the constant honking from impatient cars or children throwing snowballs in front of the building and he certainly can _not_ stand all the overplayed Christmas songs on the radio. He flips through the radio stations, hearing song after song and—although he doesn’t hate Mariah Carey in the slightest—he’s really sick of hearing All I Want For Christmas Is You every single day.

But he doesn’t hate Christmas, no, he just hates all the stress. He’s stressed, Jinki—his best friend and manager of all his business finances— is stressed, _everyone_ is stressed and he doesn’t like it.

Of course, handling it healthily and sanely isn’t apart of his vernacular, so he stays long hours in the studio—so many hours, in fact, that Jinki _and_ Taemin have come and drag him out—working on his final project. He sits in his baggy sweater and grey sweats, a needle in hand as he tries to stitch the top to the bottom. Kibum has bags under his eyes and he wants to sleep, but he hasn’t in almost twenty-four hours already. Kibum hasn’t taken a shower in a full day and has only eaten the obscenely large boxes of leftover Christmas cookies.

There is always a better way to handle things, Kibum knew that, but he didn’t really give a crap.

He slumps back in his chair with a groan, taking another sip from the mug of instant regret. Kibum loves and misses properly brewed cold coffee, but this was a whole other stage of bad. He’s been working on this dress for what seems like ages now, but he’s so behind that he feels like he needs to rush to finish.

It’s fine though.

He has time.

He’s starting to go mad looking at all this fabric with no form.

He perks up when he hears a knock on the door, confused because he hadn’t been expecting anyone, and opens the door. He’s delighted to see that it’s Taemin at the door, feeling a little joy from seeing the younger—but if anyone asks, Kibum never said that. He hears the despicably common sound of Mariah Carey’s Christmas hit through the shitty phone speaker of Taemin’s phone.

“What do you want, Taem? I’m busy,” Kibum sighs. He’s bandaging up his finger since he poked it with a needle, a sharp cry of ‘fuck’ escaping from his lips as he pulled away from the light fabric. He’s known for putting a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into his work, but he was not about to _actually_ put blood on the dress.

“I’m not blind you know, I can see that hyung,” Taemin says, entering the space, “But I still want you to grab a name from the box.” He shakes the box, wiggling his eyebrows in expectation.

“I really don’t want to, Taem,” Kibum sighs, “I have a whole bunch of shit—”

“Don’t care, hyung. I already put your name in, so you kinda have to,” Taemin states, “It’ll be a little awkward if everyone but one person gets a present.”

“Then why don’t we just open all the slips and pick who we want?” Kibum puts the needle on the counter. “Or better yet, why don’t we buy presents for ourselves instead of each other?”

“No, that besmirches the entire purpose of Secret Santa,” Taemin scoffs, “C’mon Scrooge, just pick a slip. You don’t even have to spend a lot, no more than thirty-thousand won.” Taemin is getting squeamish now, tone slightly annoyed. But Taemin knows that if Kibum is anything he is overbearingly stubborn, ignoring the way he shakes the box right in front of him. The shakes become unbearable and Kibum is pretty sure the small slips of paper are about to fall onto the floor. 

Kibum sighs, grabbing a slip from the box, “Happy now?”

Taemin rolls his eyes at Kibum which seems to be the new norm. “Yeah, yeah. Remember gifts are being exchanged at the party. You’re coming because we already paid. Keep your Secret Santa a secret, please, hyung. I’ll see you there,” Taemin replies as he’s walking back toward the door, Mariah Carey playing through the speakers of his phone.

He lets out a tired sigh, unfolding the scrap of paper to see the poor soul he needs to buy a gift for. He’s fallen victim to the spirit of Christmas once again and now he has to brave the stores at the mall he hoped to avoid. His eyes go wide as he reads the name on the slip of paper. “Taemin, let me—”

“Nope! No switching,” Taemin smiles, “See you later! I think Jinki is going to pick you up later for dinner.”

“Alright. I’ll see you later then,” Kibum sighs. There are alarms ringing in his head.

Goddammit.

Kibum crumples the piece of paper and tosses it towards the bin. He’s still focused on the dress and not the gift he has to buy for that guy he doesn’t really like. The universe had to have been testing him, right?

Kibum doesn’t hate Christmas, he just doesn’t like the fact that out of everyone to get for the company's stupid Secret Santa thing he had to get Choi Minho—a person who he hates more than anything.

+

He doesn’t hate Choi Minho in the traditional sense—hate is a word that has such a strong weight in its original meaning and honestly, it’s a lot of work—but the cons surrounding the model greatly outweighs the pros in the same ways as Christmas.

To start off, they don’t really _work_ together. Sure, it’s the same agency that picked him and Minho up. It’s the same building they both ‘work’ in, but they were in different ends of the building on most days. Minho recruits models, his expertise in the field being valuable considering he _is_ a model, while Kibum makes clothes. Minho put his face out there, for people to look at and appreciate, while Kibum didn’t. Kibum kept the mystery of the infamous designer Key exactly that—a mystery—and never really felt the need to show off. No one other than Jinki, Taemin and Minho knows his real name, or what his face looks like, and he likes it that way. Minho works on the third floor while Kibum works on the seventh—well, he was supposed to work on the seventh floor, but he rented his own study and has been working out of there for almost three years now— and they really only ever hang out when Jinki and Taemin are around.

So basically, they know jack shit about each other. They don’t see or talk to each other all that often, so why would they?

That’s not even the main part though, when Kibum _does_ see Minho he can only handle small amounts of him. He’s loud in volume, loud in personality, and loud in presence. Basically, he’s everything that Kibum is _not_ and it’s a hundred percent annoying. Minho is the embodiment of unbridled joy and, maybe Kibum is a grouchy old man, but Kibum can _not_ keep up.

Maybe it’s because he’s just grumpy, works a lot, and needs a ton more sleep than he was actually getting. 

Taemin says that Kibum is in a constant state of grump slump, that Kibum never wants to do anything that brings any _normal_ person joy, which isn’t necessarily the case. The first time he and Minho had ever met he had felt some sort of insincerity from him—he tried a little too hard, talked a little too sweetly for Kibum’s liking, and not to mention Minho was overly friendly.

That seems nice, doesn’t it?

Well, Kibum didn’t really care for it. He was cold, blunt and icy; giving Minho nothing to work with in terms of a conversation. And, eventually, Minho got the message. He kept his distance, kept their interactions strictly professional with a passing hello in the halls—okay, maybe Kibum is a bit of an asshole, but the strictly professional relationship works well.

It suits Kibum.

Maybe Kibum is a little jealous, too. Maybe he’s jealous because Minho has a charisma and energy that draws people in like a moth to a flame, maybe he’s jealous because of the fact that everyone loves to be around Minho and pays Kibum little to no attention, or maybe he’s jealous because of the fact that Kibum deems Minho a complete package: he can sing, he can dance, he’s drop-dead gorgeous. The whole package.

“What do you get someone you don’t even know,” Kibum asks, grabbing a wing from the basket.They decide to get chicken from the restaurant across the street from the studio—the only way they were going to get Kibum out of the studio is if he could still be within walking distance.

“I know he’s really into the Clippers,” Jinki replies between sips of beer. “Maybe try getting him something based off of them?”

“Where do you even get Clippers memorabilia in Korea?” Kibum groans, “They’re an _American_ team, are they not? There is no hope for any of this.”

“If you think positively, positive things will happen Kibum,” Jinki says with a mouthful of chicken. He’s munching on a thigh, giving Kibum his signature glare. “You also know how to use the internet, don’t you? You could easily find the NBA store and buy it.”

“He’s also into soccer,” Taemin adds, “Honestly, Ki, it’s like you don’t pay attention when Minho is in the same room as you talking about stuff.”Kibum bites back the urge to sass Taemin, knowing full well that he still has a twenty-minute car ride to Jinki’s apartment with him in the car.

He couldn’t stand Taemin and his teasing.

“I mean, not really,” Kibum mutters, “I don’t even like him, remember?” Kibum takes a sip of his own beer. “You know what? I’m just going to get him a gift card to a restaurant, some alcohol, and call it a year.”

“I don’t know, Kibum hyung,” Taemin says, “Gift cards are kind of lame. The company might want to continue doing Secret Santa every year until we die. Do you want to be remembered as the gift card guy?”

“Ugh,” Kibum sighs, “Don’t even—”

“And who knows? Maybe you’ll continue to pick Minho every year until you go crazy,” Taemin laughs. 

“Shut it, Taemin,” Kibum replies weakly.

“I mean, I think you’d like him if you got to know him. He’s actually pretty cool,” Jinki says, “then maybe all four of us can be best friends.”

“I don’t know Jinki-hyung,” Taemin says, “I think Kibum-hyung is territorial—”

“Shut it, Taem,” Kibum replies yet again, as weak as the first.

+

Kibum still has no clue on what to buy Minho for Christmas because of the fact that he knows absolutely _nothing_ about the younger.

He feels like he’s been stuck in the ‘what do I buy’ limbo for weeks on end, panicking at the fact that the gift exchange, Secret Santa, what-ever-the-fuck is only two weeks away and he knows nothing other than Minho likes soccer and an American basketball team. He doesn’t know Minho’s favorite color, his favorite food—- _nothing_.

This Secret Santa thing is driving him absolutely crazy.

+

**Kibum > Jinkles 18:25**

_hey, what’s minho’s favorite, well, anything?_

**Jinkles 18:30**

_his favorite color is blue, he likes one piece_

**Kibum 18:35**

_what the fuck is a ‘one piece’_

**Jinkles 18:40**

_an anime_

_oh key_

_you’re still looking for minho’s christmas gift still?_ __

**Kibum 18:43**

_……_

_maybe_

**Jinkles 18:47**

_there’s this little shop that’s selling one piece figurines downtown_

_maybe see if there’s like,,a chopper figurine or something_

_i’m sure he’d like it_

Kibum puts his phone away, putting the key in the ignition. Although buying a gift card still was at the corners of his mind, he knew that was a cop out for sure. He didn’t want to be remembered as the gift card guy and, as the clock slowly ticked, he made his way downtown.

He was going to get Minho a good gift like his life depends on it.

—— ❣❣❣——


End file.
